Sudan: Safaa Jaber Tutu wins Miss Nuba Mountains 2016 title

On Saturday, a large crowd of Nuba people from South Kordofan attended the Miss Nuba Mountains competition in Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum.

The competition was part of the Nuba Mountains Cultural Festival, held annually at the El Buheira square in Ombadda since 2013. The festival’s committee opened nominations for all young Nuba women in Sudan.

Safaa Jaber Tutu, a graduate of the El Ahfad University for Women, won the title after a reportedly fierce competition between her and the three other contenders, Noha Mahdi, a graduate of Omdurman Ahlia University and the Deputy Chair of the Nuba Mountains Journalists Network, Sabreen Abdelrahman, a graduate of the faculty of law of the El Nilein University and social secretary of the Nuba Mountains Association, and Rosalyn Tow, holding a postgraduate degree in rural development studies from El Ahfad University.

The new Nuba beauty queen is active in many social projects including the literacy for women project of the Babiker Badri Society Initiative. She is an active member of the Without Creams initiative against the use of skin whiteners, and of the Juba Mountains Journalists Network.

The ceremony was attended by a large crowd. The chairman of the festival committee, Dr Khamis Shamsoun said that they found it very difficult to choose the queen this year “as all contenders were queens’.

The festival committee as well honoured a number of musical and cultural groups and prominent Nuba figures.

After her crowning, Tutu said expressed her joy. She thanked the guests, the media, the festival committee, and her family, especially her father and her mother from whom she was separated because of the ongoing war in South Kordofan.

She then burst into weeping and could not complete her speech.